Nukes in Syria?

1938 Alert. "U.S. Confirms Israeli Strikes Hit Syrian Target Last Week," by Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper for the New York Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/018123.php

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 — After days of silence from the Israeli government, American officials confirmed Tuesday that Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes inside Syria last week, the first such attack since 2003.

A Defense Department official said Israeli jets had struck at least one target in northeastern Syria last Thursday, but the official said it was still unclear exactly what the jets hit and the extent of the bombing damage.

Syria has lodged a protest at the United Nations in response to the airstrike, accusing Israel of “flagrant violation” of its airspace. But Israel’s government has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter.

Officials in Washington said that the most likely targets of the raid were weapons caches that Israel’s government believes Iran has been sending the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah through Syria. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah’s primary benefactors, and American intelligence officials say a steady flow of munitions from Iran runs through Syria and into Lebanon....

One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria....

Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has said that if Israel is not willing to resume negotiations for the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the alternative would be to try to regain the territory by force....


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Psalm22:10-11 I was cast upon You from birth. From My mothers womb You have been My God.

US confirms Israeli air strike on Syria

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/12/wisrael112.xml

A US official has confirmed that Israeli warplanes carried out an air strike "deep inside" Syria, escalating tensions between the two countries.

The target of the strike last Thursday remained unclear but Israeli media reported that a shipment of Iranian arms crossing Syria for use by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon was attacked.

Syria first reported the incident on the day, saying its air defences had engaged five Israeli planes, but did not say what their target was. Israel remained uncharacteristically silent, pointedly refusing to deny that its warplanes were involved in an operation. The closest it came to acknowledging the affair happened was when it made an undertaking to Turkey to investigate how an Israeli long-range fuel tank was dropped on Turkish territory near the Syrian border.

Another theory gaining ground yesterday was that Israel was deliberately attacking the Russian-made Pantsyr air defence system recently bought by Damascus. The sale includes provision for the Pantsyr system to be shipped on to Iran and it is possible the Israeli attack was co-ordinated with America to probe the effectiveness of the system. It is believed that Iran would use the Pantsyr system to defend its nuclear facilities.

Syria has sought to keep the incident in the public arena, saying yesterday that it had complained formally to the United Nations, accusing Israel of unjustified aggression.

Syria and Israel have fought major wars on three occasions, in 1948, 1967 and 1973, as well as numerous other skirmishes. The two nations remain formally at war although an uneasy calm has largely held for the past three decades. Meanwhile, Israel was contemplating a retaliatory strike on Gaza last night after a Palestinian qassam rocket injured 69 of its soldiers, five seriously, at the Zikim army base. Many of the Israelis were hit by shrapnel as they slept under canvas.

While the rocket was fired by members of the Islamic Jihad party, Israel said it would hold Hamas accountable because the group is the main authority in the Gaza strip since it drove out its Fatah rivals in June.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, convened an emergency meeting yesterday with military and security commanders to discuss a response to the attack.


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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Turkey Lines Up Alongside Syria To Condemn Israeli Incursion

http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372411

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan’s blunt condemnation of an alleged violation of the Turkey’s airspace by Israeli warplanes has dealt another blow to already deteriorating relations between the two countries.

In 1996 a military training agreement between Israel and Turkey was hailed by many as heralding a new strategic alignment in the eastern Mediterranean. Over the years that followed Israeli jets regularly used the Turkish air force base in Konya for training missions while Turkish pilots underwent specialized training in facilities belonging to the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in the Negev Desert. There was also extensive cooperation in the defense industry, with Israeli firms receiving a string of lucrative defense contracts. American Jewish lobby groups became Turkey’s strongest supporters in Washington. However, plans to underpin the relationship by transporting Turkish water to Israel came to nothing. While a number of disagreements over defense contracts, and allegation of corruption involving Israeli defense suppliers, soured relations between the two countries’ militaries.

Relations began to cool rapidly following the victory of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish general election of November 2002. Although the AKP’s leaders publicly reaffirmed Turkey’s commitment to friendship with Israel, much of the party’s grassroots support remained simply and viscerally anti-Semitic. After taking power, the AKP downplayed ties with Israel, while trying to form a closer relationship with other Muslim states in the Middle East, particularly its neighbors Syria and Iran. The last five years have seen an unprecedented increase in bilateral contacts and AKP leaders have become frequent visitors to both Damascus and Tehran.

On September 6, after the Syrian government claimed that Israeli warplanes had overflown its territory and dropped munitions onto deserted areas, fuel tanks belonging to IAF warplanes were found on the Turkish side of the country’s border with Syria. The assumption is that they were jettisoned in order to increase the IAF planes’ maneuverability as they sought to avoid Syrian ground fire.

On September 6, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement supporting the Syrian protests and informing the Israeli government that Ankara took “a harsh view of the invasion of Syrian airspace by the IAF”.

On September 9, Syrian Foreign Minister Wallid Moallem flew to Ankara to seek Turkish support and met with Babacan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul. On September 10, Moallem and Babacan held a joint conference to condemn the IAF’s incursions on September 6.

The exact circumstances in which the IAF fuel tanks were deposited on Turkish territory remain unclear: not least whether the warplanes themselves entered Turkish airspace while flying close to the border or whether the tanks were carried across the border by their own momentum after being jettisoned. However, standing alongside Moallem, Babacan strongly condemned the incident.

“This is an unacceptable development for us,” he said. “We would like all the countries in the region to respect the sovereign rights of other countries and be meticulous in avoiding taking any steps that might create tensions. A wide-ranging investigation is being conducted into this matter. The country in question has been asked to provide an explanation in the very near future and the necessary contacts with Israel have been initiated. Turkey is a country which strives for peace and stability. It expects the other countries in the region to show mutual respect and conduct their relations on the basis of trust”.

The tensions over the Israeli over flights come less than a month after the U.S.-based Jewish lobby group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) caused outrage in Turkey by announcing that it now accepted that the massacres and deportations of the Armenians by the Ottoman authorities in 1915-16 constituted a genocide. The accusation has always been strongly denied by Ankara, which, in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary, has preferred to characterize the events of 1915-16 as the product of an Armenian uprising.

Israeli diplomats in Ankara have been circumspect in their reaction to Babacan’s denouncement. “When it comes to Syria, we can remain silent. But we owe the Turks an explanation,” said Alon Liel, Israel’s ambassador to Turkey.

However, inside Israel, reactions have been less restrained. Several commentators have noted that Turkey repeatedly staged incursions into northern Iraq in 1990s in pursuit of members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and still has a brigade permanently deployed inside northern Iraq. In addition, Turkish F-16s frequently violate Iraqi airspace during bombing and reconnaissance missions against PKK militants.


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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Israelis 'blew apart Syrian nuclear cache'

Is this part of the cache of Saddams?????
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/018151.php

Nice shot. By Uzi Mahnaimi, Sarah Baxter and Michael Sheridan in the TimesOnline (thanks to Sr. Soph):

IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way.
At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.

Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

The Israeli government was not saying. “The security sources and IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage,” said Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. “We naturally cannot always show the public our cards.”

The Syrians were also keeping mum. “I cannot reveal the details,” said Farouk al-Sharaa, the vice-president. “All I can say is the military and political echelon is looking into a series of responses as we speak. Results are forthcoming.” The official story that the target comprised weapons destined for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group, appeared to be crumbling in the face of widespread scepticism.

Andrew Semmel, a senior US State Department official, said Syria might have obtained nuclear equipment from “secret suppliers”, and added that there were a “number of foreign technicians” in the country.

Asked if they could be North Korean, he replied: “There are North Korean people there. There’s no question about that.” He said a network run by AQ Khan, the disgraced creator of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, could be involved.


It just gets better with every paragraph.


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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Israel sends Middle East a message with Syrian airstrike

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070919/wl_csm/onuke_1

Jerusalem - It's the event that everyone here – and no one – is talking about.

Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied the target of its Sept. 6 airstrike in Syria. Was it, as some media outlets reported, an attack on the run-of-the-mill munitions being transferred through Syria on their way to Hizbullah, or was it a strike on nuclear components supplied by North Korea?

Either way, Israel's chief of military intelligence announced that Israel's deterrence had "been restored."

But unusually quiet, regional analysts note, are moderate Arab states and international players who would, in the past, have been quick to condemn any act of Israeli aggression against a neighbor.

Amid the state-imposed silence from officialdom here on what exactly Israeli bombs struck and why (Israelis are discussing it only on the basis of leaks in Washington), observers see several key messages.

First, Israel was able to strike at Syria without suffering any consequences, military or diplomatic. Second, Israel might take steps to fulfill one of its ultimate security objectives, which is to prevent other countries in the Middle East from obtaining nuclear capability, especially those overtly hostile to Israel. Third, if a Syrian nuclear installation can be targeted by Israel without any international outcry – and with the tacit backing of allies in the US and Turkey – Iran's nuclear facilities are looking more likely than ever to be next.

"Some analysts think that it's a message to the Iranian regime that Israel can strike anywhere in the region. And it shows us the extent of cooperation between Israel and Turkey, because Turkey didn't condemn the attacks until now," says Emad Gad, an expert in Israeli affairs at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. Israel dropped fuel tanks in Turkey near their border with Syria as part of the operation.

"I think some Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and some other circles felt happy about the Israeli strike. Still, the main message is to the Syrian side," Dr. Gad says, pointing to Israel's frustration over Syria's assistance to Hizbullah, Hamas, and other Palestinian militant factions operating in Syria. Many in Egypt and elsewhere in the region see Israel's strike, when put in the context of the international community's standoff with Iran, as a step toward a bigger confrontation.

"We are heading toward what will probably be a European-US strike targeting the Iranian project, and people here are afraid of what the Iranian reaction will be," he adds. "It will be hard for them to hit America, and so anything that's seen as an American installation in the region could be a target."

Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born, Tel Aviv-based analyst and author of "The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran," says the muted reaction to Israel's strike has Iran quite concerned.

"What worries Iran most is that the international community hasn't condemned Israel," says Mr. Javedanfar. "If they're not saying anything about Syria, and Syria's not as much on the outs, what does it say for Iran?"

He says the operation had several goals in mind. "One, get Iran to come back and start negotiating seriously and put better offers on the table. Two, restore Israel's deterrence to what it was before last year's war with Lebanon. I think it has done that, in a big way, because Syria has not responded."

Not so fast, others say. Deterrence, one of the most important concepts in Israeli defense, is also one of its most amorphous. The Haaretz newspaper Tuesday criticized Israel's Director of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, for having declared Israel's deterrent capability restored in one fell swoop.

"A successful strike – if it did occur – could serve as a statement: anyone who places nuclear weapons near Israel's borders or within striking distances will have to pay a price," the paper's editorial read. But, it continued, "Israel's deterrence is measured day in and day out in the western Negev as well. Hundreds of Qassam rockets from Gaza strike the region every month, with Israel unable to come up with a deterrent response."

All of this comes at a time when there seemed to be increased signs of hope for an Israeli-Syrian rapprochement. The possibility of the two countries revisiting the negotiating table, abandoned more than seven years ago, has been in the offing in recent months, though the Bush administration has been encouraging Israel to focus on the Palestinian peace track instead.

Hebrew University professor Moshe Maoz, a supporter of the potential for Israeli-Syrian peace, worries that a strike could further radicalize Syria.

"This could restore deterrence, sure, but it might further undermine the chances of peace with Syria, and push them closer to the Shiite axis," he says. "Israel is pushing Syria, along with Bush, into the hands of Iran, by refusing to talk to them." In fact, some other Iran analysts say Israel's strike was a kind of victory for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad, who has been able to turn to Syria sanctimoniously and say that his " 'advice' about Israel not wanting peace was true all along," Javedanfar explains.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters this week that he was ready to make peace with Syria if the conditions ripen, and that there was no reason to rule out dialogue.

"The Israeli deterrent track has always been kind of divorced from the political track, and they're always willing to put one ahead of the other if they think it's something urgent," says Kenneth Pollack at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "They obviously knew about this site for a long time; they didn't discover it last week. It underlines a point that everyone knew: Israel doesn't want other countries to acquire nuclear weapons and it will do whatever it thinks is necessary to stop it," he adds.

"But no one knows what the Syrians were up to," he says. "People are wondering if it was a very nascent nuclear program and no one wants to see that."


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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Syria prepares to respond to Israel - what are the options?

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=4594

Minister of Expatriates, Butheina Shabaan, who is generally regarded as President Bashar Assad’s personal mouthpiece, made this statement Tuesday, Sept 18. It was a replay of the one first issued by a junior official on Sept. 6, together with the initial accusation that Israeli warplanes had invaded Syrian air space. The pugnacious minister also dismissed the reports published on the event as fiction and a pack of lies. Despite its repetitiveness, DEBKAfile’s American and Israeli sources interpret Shabaan’s statement’s coming now as important because it appears to indicate that the Syrian president, after due consideration, has come down on the side of a military response some time soon.

Her words were also meant as a cold shower from Damascus for the self-satisfied remarks in Jerusalem. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday he has the greatest respect for President Assad and is willing to join him in a peace dialogue. President Shimon Peres then announced, somewhat prematurely: “The military nervousness with Syria has passed.”

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, Damascus holds at least four proactive options for a response:

1. A sudden pinpoint attack on the Golan and attempt to seize hold of a small enclave or Israeli military position for several hours.

2. A multiple casualty terrorist attack on the Golan, toward which Syrian intelligence and armed forces have been training for several months.

3. Indirect action against an Israeli target – either through an incursion by one of the Lebanese-based Palestinian groups under Syria’s thumb for a massive shooting operation, or through attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets outside the Middle East by external Hizballah or Palestinian cells.

4. A Syrian strike against a strategic target inside Israel, similar to the Israeli attack which American sources report targeted an “agricultural” nuclear site in northern Syria in the first week of September. Our military sources do not believe Syria has the necessary capability for such action.

The timing of the Shabaan statement is suggestive because it came three days before Yom Kippur which falls this year on Friday night and Saturday, Sept. 21-22. Syria would find it easier to surprise Israel in the hours of its complete shutdown for the Day of Atonement, just as the Arab armies succeeded in doing 34 years ago.

Success would help the Assad regime quell the negative impact at home of the flood of media reports applauding Israel’s military achievement.


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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

WPost: America Gave the Nod for Syrian Attack

An article in today's Washington Post says that before Israel decided to strike Syria, US President George W. Bush was given intelligence information indicating that Syria was getting help from North Korea on a nuclear facility.

The White House was reportedly deeply troubled by the information, but opted against an immediate response of their own because of concern over negotiations on Pyongyang's nuclear program, the Post reported, citing US government sources.

Ultimately, however, the United States apparently gave Israel some corroboration of the original intelligence before the air raid on September 6. The Post quoted its sources as saying that Israel hit the Syrian facility in the dead of night to minimize possible casualties.

The US sources would discuss the Israeli intelligence, which included satellite imagery, only on condition of anonymity, and many details about the North Korean-Syrian connection remain unknown, according to the Post. Syria and No. Korea have predictably denied their nuclear connection.

Yesterday President Bush refused to answer repeated questions about reports that Israel conducted air strikes in Syria. "I'm not going to comment on the matter," Bush said, brushing aside several questions during a White House news conference. Israel has also refused to talk about it.

There is mounting pressure on Syrian President Assad to retaliate.

Assad: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Syrian president Bashar Assad is caught "between a rock and a hard place" over whether or not to retaliate for Israel's air attack on a WMD research facility in his country on Sept. 6. For a number of reasons, it appears that he may be forced to retaliate.

With every day that passes since the successful Israeli raid, the greater the pressure on his regime from the US and Israel and the louder the voices from his own public and army urging him to fight back.

Secondly, in general Arab rulers, popular opinion in their respective countries and the Arab media have more or less deserted the Syrian ruler. Not a single important Arab or Muslim leader outside Tehran has expressed solidarity with the Syrian people and its government - or even condemned the US and Israeli for their attack. This is extremely significant and really bad news for Bashar Assad.

Inside Syria, the sense of their president's isolation in the Arab world is so profound that even an American or Israeli attack made no difference. The average Syrian now feels that his country is ostracized and snubbed by fellow Arabs because of Assad's policies.

Assad's directive to political and military officials to refuse comment on the raid, similar to the orders issued in Jerusalem and Washington, have boomeranged against him. The people are interpreting it as a symptom of a confused leadership that doesn't know how to handle the crisis.

Assad's hesitations are hurting him day by day. Until the Sept. 6 air raid, most Syrian opposition groups spoke out against war with Israel, on the grounds that it would serve to strengthen Assad's faltering regime. Now, they are making a mockery of the official statements that the Israeli attack caused no casualties or damage (ludicrous statements to be sure), when Damascus instead needs to own up to the facts and prepare the country for appropriate retaliatation if they are to regain the people's confidence.

All these elements are pushing Assad to a hazardous juncture. He cannot ignore the circumstances piling up to induce a military coup to depose him and the last thing he wants is to be the last president of the dynasty founded by his late father.

Within his government, the 'war party' is definitely gaining the upper hand of influence while the ageing advisers in his palace are urging him to stay cool and wait for a better opportunity to retaliate. Their voices are being muted by the aggressive push for retaliation.

The young eye doctor turned President is caught in what perhaps is the most difficult position he has faced thus far in his life and presidency. And his indecision may in the end by what brings his downfall.

ALERT RAISED ON NO. BORDER

The IDF has raised the alert level on Israel's northern border out of concern that Syria will attempt to retaliate for the IAF attack within its borders on September 6.

The IDF has also declared a closure on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to remain in effect until the end of the Yom Kippur fast.

In Gaza, IDF forces attacked a cell responsible for firing mortar shells at Israel, including a round of five mortars that landed on the Israeli side of the Gaza security fence earlier Friday. Also today, a Kassam rocket hit the western Negev. No wounded or damage were reported as a result of either the rocket or the shelling.

Overnight Thursday, IDF forces arrested a man who security forces believed had masterminded a terror attack planned for Tel Aviv this weekend. The suspect, a senior commander of Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), was captured during an IDF operation in Nablus.

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=gx9xyecab.0.75jtn9n6.r4r4qyn6.5596&ts=S0274&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lekarev.org
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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

http://www.foxnews.com/index.html

Israeli Forces Seized Nuclear Material During Syrian Raid

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.

They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Israeli special forces had been gathering intelligence for several months in Syria, according to Israeli sources. They located the nuclear material at a compound near Dayr az-Zwar in the north.

Evidence that North Korean personnel were at the site is said to have been shared with President Bush over the summer. A senior American source said the administration sought proof of nuclear-related activities before giving the attack its blessing.

Diplomats in North Korea and China believe a number of North Koreans were killed in the strike, based on reports reaching Asian governments about conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials.

Syrian officials flew to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, last week, reinforcing the view that the two nations were coordinating their response.


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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Condi is a disgrace

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2007/10/condi-is-a-disg.html

It is emerging that we knew for months, months, that there was a NORK nuclear site in Syria. We stopped Israel from taking out this most dangerous of all weapons. We are pathetic. Bush has gone over to the darkside.

High Level Debate Stalled Syria Air Strike U.S. Was Concerned Over Intelligence, Stability to Region, Officials Tell ABC News

The September Israeli airstrike on a suspected nuclear site in Syria had been in the works for months, ABC News has learned, and was delayed only at the strong urging of the United States.

In early July the Israelis presented the United States with satellite imagery that they said showed a nuclear facility in Syria. They had additional evidence that they said showed that some of the technology was supplied by North Korea.

One U.S. official told ABC's Martha Raddatz the material was "jaw dropping" because it raised questions as to why U.S. intelligence had not previously picked up on the facility.

Officials said that the facility had likely been there for months if not years.

"Israel tends to be very thorough about its intelligence coverage, particularly when it takes a major military step, so they would not have acted without data from several sources," said ABC military consultant Tony Cordesman.

U.S. Cautious After Flawed Iraq Intelligence
A senior U.S. official said the Israelis planned to strike during the week of July 14 and in secret high-level meetings American officials argued over how to respond to the intelligence.

Some in the administration supported the Israeli action, but others, notably Sect. of State Condoleeza Rice did not. One senior official said the U.S. convinced the Israelis to "confront Syria before attacking."

Officials said they were concerned about the impact an attack on Syria would have on the region. And given the profound consequences of the flawed intelligence in Iraq, the U.S. wanted to be absolutely certain the intelligence was accurate.

Initially, administration officials convinced the Israelis to call off the July strike. But in September the Israelis feared that news of the site was about to leak and went ahead with the strike despite U.S. concerns.

The airstrike was so highly classified, President Bush refused to acknowledge it publicly even after the bombs fell.


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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Bush, Rice Divided Over Israeli Intelligence

The New York Times reported this morning that officials in the Bush administration are divided over the significance of intelligence provided by Israel that led to last month's strike inside Syria on a reported nuclear facility.

According to the Times, the question is whether intelligence presented to the White House by Israel months ago that Syria had begun work on a nuclear weapons program was conclusive enough to justify military action by Israel, and subsequently, a rethinking of American policy toward the two nations. US Vice President Dick Cheney and other conservatives in the administration believe that the Israeli intelligence is credible and argue that the US must reconsider its diplomatic overtures to Syria and North Korea. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice disagrees.

During a breakfast meeting on October 2 at the White House, Rice and chief North Korea negotiator, Christopher Hill, told President Bush that the US faced a choice: to continue with the nuclear pact with North Korea as a way to bring it back into the diplomatic fold and give it the incentive to stop proliferating nuclear material; or to return to the administration's previous strategy of isolation, which detractors say left North Korea to its own devices and led it to test a nuclear device last October.

VP Cheney and National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley expressed their unease at the decision last week by Bush and Rice to proceed with an agreement to supply the North Koreans with economic aid in return for disabling its nuclear reactor. They argued that the Israeli intelligence demonstrates that North Korea cannot be trusted. They also argue that the US should be prepared to scuttle the agreement unless North Korea admits to its dealing with the Syrians.

Apparently, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is also cautious about fully endorsing Israeli warnings, along with a few others in the administration. One former top Bush administration official told the Times the Israelis were so concerned about the threat posed by a potential Syrian nuclear program that they told the White House they could not wait past the end of the summer to strike the facility.

Bruce Riedel, a CIA and National Security Council veteran and now a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution, said that American intelligence agencies remained cautious about drawing hard conclusions about the significance of the suspicious activity at the Syrian site. However, Riedel added, Israel would not have launched the strike if it believed Damascus was merely developing more sophisticated ballistic missiles or chemical weapons. "Those red lines were crossed 20 years ago," Riedel said. "You don't risk general war in the Middle East over an extra 100 kilometers' range on a missile system."


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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

IAEA Springs Into Action, Contacts Syria

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=27528_IAEA_Springs_Into_Action_Contacts_Syria&only

Wow, I am Impressed, the U.N. is finally gonna do something. What, I have no clue, and neither do they...lol.

The United Nations and their blind, toothless nuclear watchdog the IAEA were totally clueless about Syria’s nuclear plant.

But don’t worry, they’ll get to the bottom of this. Why, they’ve already been in contact with Syria to ask them what’s up.

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog did not know about any undeclared atomic plant in Syria and has asked Damascus about information that such a site was targeted by an Israeli air strike, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

Citing unidentified U.S. and foreign officials with access to intelligence reports, the New York Times said on Sunday the nuclear reactor was partially built and apparently modeled on one in North Korea used for stockpiling atomic bomb fuel.

“The International Atomic Energy Agency has no information about any undeclared nuclear facility in Syria and no information about recent reports,” spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in a statement issued from the IAEA’s Vienna headquarters.

“The IAEA is in contact with the Syrian authorities to verify the authenticity of these reports,” she said.

Because, why would they lie?

Umm, because their muslims?
_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.